Wolfman Darras Breaks the Belgian Curse!

Sunday, April 22, 2012

The full moon shone brightly on Alexandre Darras of Belgium here at Grand Prix Manchester, where 1031 players - a number smashing all previous records - descended on Great Britain to try Innistrad-Dark Ascension Sealed and Draft one last time before the baton is past to the much-anticipated Avacyn Restored.

After crushing all opposition in the Swiss, where he was the last undefeated player in the tournament, Darras drafted a Top 8 special that was packed with cards that really didn't like daylight, and got their freak on when the lunar went loony. In the semifinal in particular, there was a real horror show for his opponent Lasse Norgaard, who simply couldn't contend with so many ferocious throat-rippers, hamstring-tearers, and ankle-biters.

Mario Pascoli, having navigated his way past compatriot Ciro Bonaventura, and then Swedish Pro Joel Larsson in the semifinals, stood in the path of destiny for Darras.

And the curse? From Ben Possemiers at Grand Prix London 1997, through to Marijn Lybaert this weekend, 31 other Belgians had reached the Top 8 of a Grand Prix. None had emerged with the trophy. It would take something truly special to break the curse, and Darras had the something special in his hands. Perhaps this was the harbinger of what Avacyn has in store for the poor afflicted werewolves of Innistrad?

Elsewhere, other dreams were being fulfilled. Adam Katz became the first South African to make a GP Top 8 outside his own country, roared on by avid fans back at home, thousands of miles away. Also across the oceans were fans of Ben Stark, Craig Wescoe, and Jackie Lee, bold travelers from the United States. Lee guaranteed herself Gold Pro status for next season with yet another top 16 finish, while Wescoe will be Platinum next year, and Stark improved his chances of making it in Barcelona. Also making Platinum is Hall of Famer Raphael Levy, who ended a tense run of near-misses with a top 16 that locks his top level status, yet another great achievement in a storied career.

For all that, though, by the light of the moon both literal and figurative, the howling, snarling denizens of Darras would brook no argument in his quest to break the Belgian Top 8 curse. In three games it was shattered once and for all, and Belgium had a Grand Prix hero to stand proudly beside Pro Tour London champion Geoffrey Siron.

It may not have been Werewolves in London, but it was certainly Werewolves in Manchester.

Marijn Lybaert is is one of the best Belgian players of all time. He has multiple Pro Tour Top 8 to his name and is no newcomer to the Top 8 of a Limited Grand Prix; for instance, he finished third at Grand Prix Gothenburg 2010. But this time, he's hoping to actually win the entire tournament.

Up next was a booster with Predator Ooze, and this cemented Marijn heavily into green. The fourth booster held a choice between another Scorned Villager and a rather late Tragic Slip. Marijn stayed on course by taking the green card. "I want as much as green as possible in order to play Predator Ooze consistently. Even though Tragic Slip is good, I didn't want to switch into black all of a sudden," Marijn explained after the draft.

During the ceremonial revelation of everyone's double-faced card, Marijn already knew which card he was going to pick: he opened Garruk Relentless! Up next was a Darkthicket Wolf. The next pack had Slayer of the Wicked, which quickly found its way into Marijn's draft pile. Marijn's 4th pack contained Avacyn's Pilgrim and Moment of Heroism. He flipped back and forth between the 1/1 and the pump spell for a while, then went with the combat trick.

When Marijn arrived at the deck constructed table, I asked him how he thought the draft went. "Ca va", the Belgian replied. "The draft went okay, but the third pack was very shallow. Then again, I still managed to get Garruk Relentless and Slayer of the Wicked out of it, so I shouldn't complain."

Quarterfinals - Joel Larsson vs. Adam Katz

by Tobi Henke

It's the third Grand Prix Top 8 for Joel Larsson from Sweden. For his opponent from South Africa, Adam Katz, it's the first. As Gold level pro, Larsson is already qualified for all the upcoming Pro Tours, while Katz was now playing for an invite to Pro Tour Return to Ravnica in Seattle. Both had drafted blue-red decks, with Larsson's sporting a small splash for black.

Larsson's Murder of Crows attacked, was blocked by four creatures, and saved by Undying Evil. Both players' Murders cycled a couple of cards. Katz found Blasphemous Act this way, but was reluctant to cast it. He counted the total number of Larsson's potential attackers (eight, including Hellrider), checked his life total (8), shrugged and went with it anyway. Both players put another thirteen instances of Murder of Crow's triggered ability on the stack. Halfway through resolving them, Katz realized he didn't have enough creatures left in his deck to kill Larsson before running out of cards.,

Next, Katz had a real threat in Beguiler of Wills, but Larsson had Forge Devil at the ready. Katz cast Relentless Skaab off the only creature in his graveyard, and again Larsson had the perfect answer in Grasp of Phantoms. Katz summoned Tower Geist, Larsson summoned Flayer of the Hatebound. The latter two traded and Larsson shot 5 to Katz's head. He picked up the top card of his library, looking for help. No help there.

Adam Katz 0 – 2 Joel Larsson

Semifinals - Alexandre Darras vs. Lasse Nørgaard

by Frank Karsten

Alexandre Darras from Belgium and Lasse Nørgaard from Belgium had already met in Round 15, when they took an ID into the Top 8. This time around, a winner had to emerge. They shuffled up their weapons and got down to business.

After that, Ambush Viper and Markov Warlord from Alexandre upped the pressure. "I'm not winning this race at all," Lasse mentioned, sitting with a bunch of white cards in hand but no Plains in sight.

Lasse Norgaard under pressure from werewolves

When Alexandre added Rage Thrower to his board and immediately turned all of his creatures sideways, Lasse was in big trouble. He tried to remove the dominating 4/2 with Fires of Undeath, but Hunger of the Howlpack from Darras saved it. With Rage Thrower still alive, Lasse could not manage any good blocks, and Alexandre took the first game.

Alexandre Darras 1 – Lasse Nørgaard 0

Game 2

Lasse got to play first, but had no creature to play on any of his first three turns. Alexandre had a more aggressive start with a turn 2 Gatstaf Shepherd. To avoid it from flipping, Lasse had to play a spell. "Geistflame...you! ", Lasse exclaimed, pumping his first in jest. Alexandre's werewolf eventually flipped regardless, as Alexandre did not play a spell on his third turn.

Next turn, Ulvenwald Mystics came down for Alexandre. "I don't have fond memories of that guy," Lasse mentioned. "I can see why," Alexandre replied. Nevertheless, Unburial Rites on Elgaud Inquisitor meant that Lasse would be able to stay alive for quite some time, while getting some tiny 1/1 flyers that could start nibbling away at Alexandre's life total.

As the game progressed, both players continued to add creatures to the battlefield, which became cluttered quite quickly, as pictured.

The complicated board state in game 2; Lasse on the left, Alexandre to the right

When Alexandre declined to play a spell, mayhem broke loose. "In your upkeep, trigger, trigger, trigger, trigger, trigger". All Werewolves flipped to the night side again, and the combat math was getting very complicated. Still, Lasse would be able to make good blocks, so although Alexandre could get in with Gasthaf Howler, he was not yet able to profitably swing all-out with his creatures yet.

But Alexandre's deck contained cards such as Rage Thrower, Nightbird's Clutches, and Markov Warlord that could break the ground creature stall, and it was only a matter of time until he drew one of them. Alexandre's deck eventually presented Markov Warlord, which allowed the Belgian to attack for lethal damage.

When asked what went wrong during the games, Lasse replied "I didn't draw any of my cheap flashback spells; if I would have, I would've been able to flip his werewolves back". Lasse Nørgaard succumbs to Alexandre's werewolves.

Alexandre Darras advances to the finals of Grand Prix Manchester!

Finals - Mario Pascoli vs. Alexandre Darras

by Tobi Henke

The final match of the weekend: Belgian Alexandre Darras, playing in his first Grand Prix Top 8, up against Mario Pascoli from Italy who has been to six GP Top 8s already, to the finals of a Pro Tour, and been a National champion twice. Regarding decks, the match-up was red-green (Darras) versus G/W with a rather big blue splash (Pascoli).

Now Pascoli dropped the bomb, or rather two bombs, in the form of Mayor Avabruck and Elder of Laurelas. His Ulvenwald Bear chumpblocked, and Darras cast Dawntreader Elk. Pascoli, whistling happily (or nervously?) simply passed the turn right back, transforming his Mayor of Avabruck.

Darras cast Blood Feud on Pascoli's creatures. Howlpack Alpha got +2/+2 until end of turn, before taking down the Elder of Laurels and taking 2 damage itself. Darras's 2/2 creatures couldn't attack profitably and it was back to Pascoli.

Over the next couple of turns, with the help of Chapel Geist and Howlpack Alpha, Pascoli built a line of defense Darras's creatures would never be able to get past again. But they didn't have to. "Sweet topdeck," Darras announced and revealed Blazing Torch.

Mario Pascoli 0 – 1 Alexandre Darras

Pascoli took a while to decide what to to with his opening seven, but kept in the end. Darras just took one quick peek and declared, "An easy mulligan." His six weren't better either, but his five were.

For the first time in the match, neither player cast anything on turn one. For the third time, Darras had Darkthicket Wolf on turn two. Pascoli played a land and said go. Darras followed it up with Torch Fiend. Pascoli drew his card, failed to find a third land, and passed without play. Darras attacked for 6, pumping his Wolf. Pascoli drew his card, failed to find a third land, and passed without play. Darras attacked for 6, pumping his Wolf. Pascoli drew his card, failed to find a third land, and ... conceded.

Lingering Souls is still the number one card to open in this draft format and perhaps the best uncommon ever printed for Limited. It's that good. Top 8 competitors Lasse Nørgaard and Joel Larsson made it through their second drafts with Lingering Souls as the best card in their decks. Without the white sorcery, it's likely they would have had a much harder time making their runs through the tournament.

As from British PT regular Rob Wagner: "Every game I lost today, my opponents each cast precisely one more Lingering Souls than I did. Every other game, I won. Good card that."

4. Faith's Shield

It's such an innocuous card, but when the hour gets fateful, its impact is unparalleled. One of the coolest plays of this tournament was made by England's Neil Rigby. Playing against Joel Larsson of Sweden in Round 7 of Day 1, Neil Rigby had two Festerhide Boars locked down with Burden of Guilts. The game was not looking for Neil, as Joel had already put him down to less than 5 life.

Still, an end of turn Faith's Shield from Rigby got him back in the game by targeting ... Forest! Wait; what? Yes: Forest! Faith's Shield says "target permanent", not "target creature", and by playing it on a land rather than a creature, Neil could sidestep any creature removal that could counter Faith's Shield in response otherwise. It didn't win the game in the end, but an extremely cool play is an extremely cool play.

When asked "What card really exemplified the format for you", multiple pro players answered that Loyal Cathar would come to their mind when thinking back of Innistrad /Dark Ascension Limited in a few years from now.

There are three important reasons for this. Firstly, Loyal Cathar is a great 2-drop in one of the fastest Limited formats in years, and casting creatures is really what you need to be doing on turn 2 in this format. Secondly, it's a double-faced card, and those double-faced cards have had a huge and unique impact on this draft format by allowing you to signal what colors you're drafting. It has made the drafting format much more cooperative than it usually is. Finally, Loyal Cathar fits very well with all the sacrifice cards, such as Falkenrath Torturer, that were abundant in this format. All in all, Loyal Cathar turned out to be a centerpiece of quite a few black-white decks over the course of the Grand Prix.

There are nastier public servants than the Mayor of Avabruck, but just wait until you make him angry! The GP finalist Mario Pascoli found the standout in his Sealed pool, drafted it on Sunday morning, and found one getting re-elected for a third term into his starting 40 in the top 8. You want an Alpha male to be exactly that, and once the leader of the Howlpack gets going, it's so tough to stop - and it all gets so miserable for you so quickly! If you're playing a deck that doesn't have too many early plays, you can be on the slippery slope to the next game before you can get anything decent onto the board - a board, naturally, populated with some very nasty four-legged 'friends'. Yep, when it comes to freaky functionaries, Mayor of Avabruck gets our vote.

See, this is a card I can get behind. Everyone knows that gigantic blue flyers are gigantic, and fly. And they're blue. Everyone knows that Huntmaster of the Fells can go a long way at a Constructed Pro Tour level. Fine. But Pyreheart Wolf isn't big, it isn't clever, and it doesn't demand the big bucks. Instead, this innocuous 1/1 for three mana - see, it sounds like it can't be up to much when you put it like that, right? - delivers left, right, and center, uncomplainingly providing offense, defense, and any other kind of fence you need, when you need it. As eventual champion Alexandre Darras, who used it to great effect all weekend, might have said, 'You could argue that the older the format gets, the more focused the decks get. So if you go for aggressive, take Pyreheart Wolf.' You'll be glad you did.